Before we turn to our text, which is found once again in Isaiah 53, turn with me to Romans 5. Romans 5, where we read together the first 11 verses. Romans 5, beginning at verse 1, as we give our attention to the Word of God. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him? For if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Then we turn over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, we considered together last week the first three verses. Today we consider, or this morning we consider, verses 4 through 6. And tonight, the Lord willing, verses 7 through 9. But this morning, before we read our text, let's begin at verse 1 as we work into our text. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. And now the words of our text. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Beloved of the Lord, as we continue our study of the suffering and death of our Savior, as we find it recorded in Isaiah chapter 53, we need to remember once again, as we said last week, that Christ was rejected by men. Rejected. And that rejection included the fact that He didn't fit Israel's expectation of the Messiah. As those first three verses of Isaiah 53 pointed out, there was nothing physically heroic about Him. He didn't look like a mighty military man or like a great leader. And although he was from David's line, there was nothing royal about him or his family. His appearance was simply that of an ordinary man. And therefore, our Savior was despised, rejected, not esteemed by men. All those things that we never want to happen to us, happened to Him. They didn't want Him. He didn't fit the bill. Men turned away from Him and didn't see any value in Him. He wasn't worthwhile. He wasn't worth their time. He suffered rejection. And that rejection led all the way to death on the cross. This text this morning points directly to the cross and the reason He went to the cross. The depth of Christ's humility was the suffering and shame He endured on the cross. Yet for such a glorious purpose, I preach to you of the suffering servant, His redemption. Considering, first of all, the erroneous or mistaken understanding of His redemption. Secondly, the substitutionary character of His redemption. And finally, the amazing cause of His redemption. Beloved, there's absolutely no question about the fact that Jesus Christ suffered, at least physically. The text points to this as it speaks of Him in connection with infirmities, sorrows, stricken, smitten, afflicted by God, pierced, crushed, punished, wounded. And I'm sure that even some of the youngest boys and girls that are here have heard the Bible stories of Christ's trial and His crucifixion on the cross and they could tell us what happened to Him. Jesus was arrested and bound, tied up, maybe kind of like with handcuffs. He was shoved around. He was spit on. He was hit by others with their hands. He was mocked. He was brutally whipped. And that was excruciating because the whips had sharp, jagged pieces of bone or other sharp fragments woven into the cord. And every lash of the whip literally tore the flesh off of His back. And what can we say about the crucifixion itself? You see, it's really not something that we today can understand. We've never seen anyone having been crucified. It's not happened to us. Those who were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion had a much better understanding of the intense physical suffering involved, yet even they could not truly know what it was all about. We can only imagine. The nails in the hands and in the feet are beyond our comprehension. Yet besides the physical suffering, we know that Jesus Christ suffered in His Spirit as He suffered the wrath and punishment of God against sin in order to complete His work of redemption. That we might be justified even as Paul says in Romans 5. Again, the text speaks of transgressions and iniquities transgression is talking about rebellion against god and a deliberate purposeful breaking of his law iniquity is talking about turning the wrong way due to the crookedness of our nature we're all messed up inside we said last week that sin is missing the mark of god's command jesus christ was punished for sin with all of its meanings in all of its dimensions rebellion, crookedness, sin of thought, word, or actions. But for whom did He do this? Remember, the prophecy in Isaiah 53 is spoken as if it had already taken place. But it's also spoken in the context of captivity. In many respects, this chapter reminds the people that they are the sheep. The Israelites were the sheep that had turned to their own way and had been scattered, sent into exile. and now being reminded as well that there is a Redeemer. The Messiah would come, and indeed, this is spoken as if He had already come, as if His work was already accomplished. And verse 4 appears to be, first of all, a confession that Christ suffered for the infirmities and sorrows of the people Israel. This was long after the fact that now they realize that's what He did. But in the second place, there's also an acknowledgement that the people didn't understand this in this way as Christ suffered. They had an erroneous, a mistaken understanding of His redemption. The second half of verse 4 says, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. When Jesus was crucified, Israel thought that He was getting what He deserved. The Pharisees accused Him of being on Satan's side. In Matthew 12, 24, we read, this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Earlier, the Jews wanted to stone him, saying in John 10, 33, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God. At his trial before the high priest, when he was asked if he was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, Jesus said, I am. And in Mark 14, verse 64, the high priest, after tearing his clothes, responded to that answer by saying, You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death. Beloved, apart from that new life of regeneration, along with the Jews of Jesus' day, we do not behold Him as the light. Instead, we are blinded by the light. We are ignorant of Him and His work, and we are ignorant of our sin. The Jews didn't understand that they were charging God with sin. What a dangerous thing to do. They thought God was a deadly enemy of Christ. And they failed to see, they ignored their own sins and failed to see the truth that God was really their deadly enemy. And like Job's so-called friends, the Jews measured the sin of the sufferer by the sufferings he endured. Oh, the suffering is great. His sin must have been great. Surely, justice was being served against Christ. Surely, if they who feared God hated Him, then God must also hate Him. How wrong they were. What does Scripture say? At Christ's baptism, the heavens opened and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. When those who put Christ to death should have been horror-struck at themselves because of their sin, and instead filled with love and adoration for Christ, instead they treated Him as one who deserved what He got. And again, that's us apart from Him. And we're not only blind to His redemptive work, but we're also blind to our own sin. How often haven't you realized after the fact that you were blind to your own sin? I had the occasion this past week to confront a woman, not from this church, but to confront her about her living arrangement with her boyfriend. I said, on the one hand, you say you believe in God, but on the other hand, you are living in adultery. There's a contradiction here. We went back and forth for a little while, and her response was that they had been together for four years, through many very difficult times, and she didn't know why, but God wanted them together. If He didn't, He would have torn them apart. And she basically told me that God was blessing their adulterous relationship. She was ignorant of God's ways and of her sin. Congregation, because of the erroneous understanding of Christ's redemption, the Jews failed to see the seriousness of their own sin, And they failed to see the truth and beauty of the substitutionary character of His redemption. The truth of the matter is that Christ did not deserve to be punished and suffer and die. He was innocent. Even Pilate said, I find no fault in Him. In fact, in Luke 23, it records that three times Pilate makes reference to the fact that he can't figure out what Christ has done wrong. Even verse 9 of chapter 53, the end of it says, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. The text makes clear over and over again that Jesus Christ didn't suffer for His own sins, but for us and for our sins. He took up our infirmities, carried our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He took that which was ours upon Himself. Paul says, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And Peter supports this when he says, Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Beloved, you know what this is? This was a great exchange. He who was completely sinless and perfectly innocent took upon Himself our infirmities and carried our sorrows, things which point to the consequence of sin. Matthew points to casting out demons and physical healing as a fulfillment or a partial fulfillment of this prophecy. In Matthew 8, 16 and 17, we read, When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed, and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness. It's true that Christ's physical healings, those which He performed, pointed to the truth that one day all of God's people will be delivered from this body of death and delivered from the consequences of sin, including sickness and sorrow and death and tears and all of our physical needs, but even greater than this, that God's people would be delivered from spiritual death. You see, all of the descriptive words in the text, stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, punished, wounded, Point to complete destruction with a violence and a painful death. Jesus Christ went the whole distance. Our sin, committed against the Most High Majesty of God, deserved hell and anguish. Do we really understand that? I have to ask myself that. Do I really understand what my sin deserved? What I had coming to me, Hell and anguish eternally deserves eternal separation from God's favor and instead deserves eternal punishment that flows from His wrath. We deserve to be eternally cut off from God and from fellowship with Him. By nature, we are guilty. And that guilt, beloved, means two things. It means that we deserve, first of all, to be separated from God's presence forever but also to be punished for our sin forever. That's what we deserve. But Jesus Christ took our guilt upon Himself. It's not even that we gave it to Him, you see. He took it upon Himself. Verse 6 says, The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Jesus didn't become a sinner. Because of us. But He became sin for us. In other words, everything that was against us became against Him. He took our guilt and therefore He became guilty in our place. And He was punished in our place. In that sense, yes, justice was served. Beloved, how can we not esteem Him? How can we not see that He is to be valued above all else, that He is to be considered worthwhile? You see, the cross alienates so many from Christ because they refuse to see the truth of Christ's substitutionary atonement. They refuse to recognize their own sin and the fact that they deserve eternal hell and that Christ has taken that upon Himself for those who believe on Him. And the offense of the cross is only removed when we see by faith that by His death, our sins have been atoned for. God's wrath has been removed and salvation is ours. We talked about Christ's physical suffering. We can't begin to understand that, let alone begin to understand His spiritual suffering. And beloved, we must not, and we may not try to psychologize Christ, oh, I wonder what he felt at that time. I wonder what he was thinking as those nails were pounded into his hands. We can't begin to do that. But as believers, we do know how we have suffered in our hearts and groaned because of sickness and death. And by God's grace, as born again children of God, when we recognize the sin that continues to cling to us against our will, we do struggle because we have offended God. But Christ, very God of very God, took all the offenses, all the sorrows, all the sin against God and the guilt because of it upon Himself for His people. All of it. He who was perfectly holy bore the unholiness of His people. Really, that's a contradiction. The holy can have nothing to do with that which is unholy. But He bore it all. And therefore, what anguish of spirit! Jesus Christ stood in the place of sinners and bore the ultimate punishment and eternity's worth of hell for each one of His people. Now, I can't begin to understand that. Each and every one of us deserve eternal hell. Jesus Christ bore an eternity's worth of hell. In time, as He suffered on the cross, He did it for each one of His people. He took away what we deserved. He gave us that which we do not deserve. The end of verse 5 says, The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. You see, congregation, sin is not only a crime against God which separates us from Him and causes enmity between us and God, but sin is also a disease which attacks our soul and leads to eternal death. Christ was condemned and took our punishment, thereby removing the enmity and restoring us to peace with God. Those washed in the blood of the Lamb of God are reconciled to God's favor. They receive the mercy and grace of God. They enjoy fellowship in God's presence. Our sickness unto eternal death has been made well by Christ's wounds. Healing here is talking about that cleansing unto righteousness. Peace is talking about salvation. No longer will God's people die eternally. And no longer do God's people have to fear death into this life. That enemy is vanquished and death to this life for the believer is now the glorious gateway into the presence of God forever and ever. Beloved, in order to take the place of sinners, Jesus Christ had to be perfectly sinless. If He wasn't, then all of this would mean absolutely nothing because God would not have been satisfied. One who was a sinner could not satisfy for his own sins, let alone the sins of others. But those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith can be fully confident that because Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God, offered Himself for our sins while we were still sinners, that we now enjoy complete freedom from that which caused Him to die. Did you get that? We enjoy complete freedom from that which made His death necessary. Our sin and all the consequences of sin. Romans 4.25 speaks of Jesus who was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. People of God, we are redeemed by God's grace because Christ substituted Himself for us. He justified us. But we must also notice the amazing cause of His redemption. Verse 6 says, We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, the essence of sin is following our own way instead of following God's way. That's the essence of sin. All of mankind has gone astray. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Each one of God's people has gone astray. Each one of us individually has turned to his own way. sheep are prone to wander away and once they have, they can't find their way back home. We have alienated ourselves from God, from His favor, from His fellowship. And we have turned from the purpose for which He made us, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We have set up our own will and our own way in opposition to and in competition with God's way. Indeed, Christ went to the cross because of our sins. But again, we didn't ask Him to. By nature, we didn't even want Him to. He did it willingly. This was the work of God. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world and those who received the benefit of His substitutionary death are those elect by God from before the foundation of the world. He suffered on account of our sin. I want to make that clear. But He suffered at the hand of God. Just as Israel's sins were laid on the head of the scapegoat, pointing to Christ, ours were laid on Christ. They were not counted against us, but against Him. And praise the Lord for that reason, our sins will never count against us. All the charges have been dropped. Now sometimes well-meaning Christians say, I put Christ on the cross. I nailed the nails into His hands and feet. I thrust the spear into His side. I killed Him. We have to be careful with that. Yes, Jesus died because of our sins. But we didn't kill Him. That may come as a surprise. We did not kill Him. You see, that would be claiming a power greater than Him, which we don't have. Listen to what Jesus Himself said in John 10, verses 17 and 18. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, But I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father. Jesus Christ orchestrated all of His suffering and death because of our sin. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. This is something amazing to behold that the very One who was offended by us chose to redeem us and since we couldn't redeem ourselves and since we didn't even want to be redeemed since we couldn't satisfy His wrath and make the sufficient payment He provided for us. And now congregation those whose sins Christ took will never be rejected by God. Oh, I pray that's your confidence that those whose sins Christ took will never be rejected by God. Beloved, is that your comfort? Only those who know their sin and misery and understand their need for the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ can understand what a great salvation this is. This is the message to be preached. This is the message to be taught to our children. Mike and Mary made that promise this morning. And now they are called to teach little Amanda as soon as she is able to understand that she is a sinner. But that for those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, He has taken their place that they might have abundant eternal life. And our rock-solid confidence is that God will never again hold the sins of His people against them because He has already held them against His only begotten Son. And that's the promise of baptism. yet the warning must still go out to those who continue to reject Jesus Christ those who die in unbelief will find that Christ is not their substitute who stands with them but the just judge who stands to testify against them apart from Jesus Christ they will be stricken smitten and afflicted by God for their own sins that's all they can handle and they can't even handle that. And God will lay on them their own iniquity for eternity. Yet the sure promise for those who repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith is the promise of that great exchange. His death for my life. A congregation. That is love. Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. And beloved, far from being rejected, the suffering servant should have been adored. And only those who truly understand their sin by God's grace will adore the Savior. At Christmas time we sing, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Why? Because He considers us His friends. And He has given Himself in our place. Is that your comfort? Do you adore Him? Amen. Shall we pray? Father, once again we stand amazed that You would have such great love for Your people and for Your glory that You would save a people for Yourself by sending Your only begotten Son that He would give His life willingly to death that we might have life and have it abundantly. O Father, we confess that so often we forget this. But indeed, may this be the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. Hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.